Back to Work

This was my (Rachel’s) first week back at work with Chi Alpha since Jaeda’s birth.   Besides attending the New England/New York winter retreat over the February 14 weekend (Jaeda was 5 weeks old) and the AG Sectional meeting for the Northwest NNED (Jaeda was 7 weeks old), I’ve been spending all my time adjusting to life with a baby.  My first step was to figure out how to maintain personal hygiene while caring for a newborn:-).  There were definitely days when I didn’t shower or brush my teeth.  Next was exercise.  Jaeda is learning to like walks with mommy in the Kelty carrier that friends let us borrow.  Also, I started taking Jaeda on personal errands like shopping.  Jaeda is still deciding whether or not she likes the car seat.  Overall, the last 10 weeks have been a crash course in caring for a newborn!

At the advice of our Breastfeeding class instructor, Joe and I waited until 6 weeks to introduce the bottle to Jaeda.  And, so far, Joe has only been able to feed Jaeda 1.5 ounces of milk in one sitting.  At Jaeda’s 2 month check up, we told our pediatrician about this, and she said we should have started the bottle sooner- like at 4 weeks.  Oh well!

Jaeda’s feeding preferences have affected my ability to work.  So, I’m on a graduated work re-entry plan.  For the rest of the semester, I’m attending our women’s small group and have blocked out a couple of hours for administration and meeting with students.   The women’s small group started this semester and 2 students are facilitating.  Neither student has ever facilitated a small group, so I’m very grateful that they wanted to do this!  I still love campus ministry and seriously enjoy  spending time with college students, although the challenge now is learning how to be a working mom.